Thursday 12 Apr 2018, 6pmRoyal Festival Hall, London

At a time when his contemporaries looked with disdain on chamber compositions, a young Brahms defiantly produced many of the most influential and engaging works in the genre.

His G minor Piano Quartet premiered in Hamburg when Brahms was just 28, with the notable composer and close friend, Clara Schumann, on piano. Growing out of a surprisingly delicate piano opening, the instruments enter one by one with a simple theme that builds to an intense climax.

A fleet-footed scherzo second movement follows, the calm before the storm of the virtuosic ‘Gypsy Rondo’ finale, one of the most devilish movements in chamber repertoire.

Later, hear the full Orchestra perform music by one of Brahms’s idols – Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – followed by Mahler’s cosmic First Symphony in the evening programme at 7.30pm.